SANTA CRUZ &GT;&GT; Living in Santa Cruz, with its unique beauty, community members regularly enjoy the environment around them. Well, residents can learn more about the Central Coast”s natural world over the next two weeks at a series of lectures by university scientists and other experts at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.

Through the Ray Collett Lecture Series and the prestigious California Naturalist Program, the Arboretum is hosting three speakers who will focus on local geology, ecology and biology.

Attending one or all of the talks is an opportunity to make some new discoveries while supporting the Arboretum. Its diverse collection of plants includes many rare and threatened ones, and species that aren”t available in any other American botanical garden or arboretum. Serving both the campus and the public, the Arboretum has been committed to plant conservation for decades.

The beaches

Geologic consultant Gerald Weber leads the first talk on Tuesday, May 27, “The Anomalous Coastline: New Brighton Beach to the Pajaro River.” Weber”s research has uncovered a unique perspective on geologic time that includes evidence of unusually large amounts of sand locally and the geologic events over the past few centuries that are responsible. The presentation, says California Naturalist Program co-coordinator Linda Anderson, will answer the question, “Why do we have wide sandy beaches while most of California is losing theirs?”

Weber earned a doctorate from UCSC and taught summer field camp to the university”s Earth Science students for 20 years. He and wife Suzanne Holt established an endowment to provide summer field camp scholarships to students in need.

Ecoregions

During the second lecture on Thursday, May 29, “California: An Ecoregional Tour,” Todd Keeler-Wolf will lead the audience on a visual tour of Naturalist Program settings such as redwood forests, chaparral, and vernal pools. He will answer questions like: “Why are the poppy fields the best and biggest in the Antelope Valley?” and “Why is the serpentine vegetation in the Klamath Province so different than in the Sierra foothills?”

Keeler-Wolf was one of the first natural history majors to graduate from UCSC in the 1970s. Renowned for his knowledge and understanding of California”s plant life, he serves as senior vegetation ecologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Puma Project

As wildlife ecologist Chris Wilmers points out, certain predators and wildlife live in human-dominated places, and as more roads and houses are developed, they have to change their behavior to adapt to habitats that have been fragmented. Wilmers presents “The Puma Project,” on Thursday, June 5. He will explain the Santa Cruz Puma Project, a tracking and monitoring program he founded to study the impacts of this fragmentation on mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains (Note: For those who attended Wilmers” sold-out presentation at the Rio Theater in March, or who missed it, this is the same talk).

Wilmers teaches environmental studies at UCSC. His UC Berkeley dissertation focused on how the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park impacted scavengers and the ecosystem. Yellowstone is where he saw his first puma, and he has been tracking them ever since.

Stephanie Nielsen, a UCSC staff member who recently started volunteering for the Arboretum, said she looks forward to attending the talks.

“Learning about the natural world around me deepens my sense of place and belonging,” she says. “It is a rare opportunity to listen to experts in their field tell their stories in a public setting.”

If you attend the series and get inspired to learn more, consider enrolling in the California Naturalist Program. This intensive certification program combines science curriculum, guest lecturers, field trips and project-based learning, to engage people with ecology and the stewardship of natural communities. The annual program is held April through June; applications are accepted beginning in February. It is designed to encourage graduates to become volunteers who actively help conserve our natural resources. Visit calnat.ucanr.edu for details.

The series

What: Three public lectures presented by the UCSC Arboretum

Where: All presentations are in the Arboretum”s Horticulture Building, which is off High Street between the two entrances to campus.

Details: For more information call 831-427-2998

Lecture No. 1, Gerald Weber

When: Tuesday, May 27, 6 p.m. potluck and 7 p.m. talk

Cost: $5 for Arboretum members, $10 for nonmembers. UCSC students are free.